System and Method for Protecting Data in Business Transactions

1. A method for protecting user's or owner's data in a system comprising at least one server and at least one client computer in a network or the Internet, the method comprising: uploading sensitive data from the user, wherein the uploading step further comprises generating a user interface for uploading data together with an encryption key, uploading data with an encryption key to the server, encrypting the part or all of uploaded data on the server by using the accompanied encryption key, and saving the uploaded and encrypted data along with tracking information for the data on the server; authorizing a business transaction from a client computer, wherein the authorizing step further comprises generating a user interface for getting or uploading an encryption key with information identifying the business transaction to be conducted, rendering the interface on a client computer of the user, getting a user-provided encryption key or getting an encryption key from a designated location of the client computer, sending the encryption key with the information identifying the business transaction to the server, retrieving the encrypted and stored data from the server, and decrypting the retrieved data with the uploaded encryption key on the server to generate usable data; and conducting a business transaction, wherein the step of conducting the business transaction further comprises getting the usable data, using the data to conduct a business transaction on the same server or sending the usable data to a remote server to complete the transaction, preparing a message informing the result of the transaction, and rendering or displaying the message on the client computer for the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface used in the data uploading step accepting a hint for the encryption key, saving the hint on the server for the user, and displaying the hint in the user interface in the transaction-authorizing step so that the user can see the hint.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the business transaction is making a payment, accessing bank records, accessing credit reports, accessing medical records, accessing personal information, conducting computation, or accessing and processing data in a database.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of including or adding new data in the authorizing step, wherein the new data is used to replace, amend, or supplement the usable data so that the new data can alter the business transaction done in the transaction step.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the authorizing step is sending a reply to an instant message on a cellular phone, submitting a web form from a computer, or optionally making a telephone call to provide an encryption key.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of designating the encryption key location on the client computer or a search order for searching the encryption key, whereby the encryption key can be found in the designated key location or by searching the key in the search order on the client computer.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of saving the encryption key only on volatile memory on the server for repeated uses wherein the encryption key disappears upon shutting down the server or is deleted after the user's connection is terminated.

8. A method for protecting sensitive user's or owner's data in a system comprising at least one server and at least one client computer in a network or the Internet, the method comprising: creating a user account for a user so that data can be saved for the user of the account; uploading user data, wherein the uploading step comprises generating a user interface for uploading data with an encryption key, uploading user-provided data with an encryption key to the server, encrypting at least part of the uploaded data on the server by using the encryption key, and saving the uploaded and encrypted data on the server, or comprises generating a user interface for uploading data, encrypt the data on the client computer, and uploading the encrypted data to the server, and storing the encrypted data on the server, whereby data from different users are encrypted by using different encryption keys and stored in the same database or different databases on the at least one server; authorizing a business transaction, wherein the authorizing step comprises generating a user interface for uploading an encryption key together with information identifying the business transaction, rendering the user interface on a client computer for the user, getting a user-provided encryption key or getting an encryption key from the client computer, sending the encryption key with the information identifying the business transaction to the server, retrieving the stored encrypted data for the business transaction, and decrypting the retrieved data with the uploaded encryption key on the server to generate usable data, or comprises generating a user interface for downloading encrypted data to the client computer, decrypting the downloaded data using a user-provided key, uploading the resulted usable data to the server, and validating the usable data on the server; and conducting a business transaction, wherein the step of conducting the business transaction further comprises getting the usable data, using the usable data to conduct the business transaction on the same server or sending the usable data to a remote server to complete the transaction, generating a message for informing the result of the transaction, and rendering or showing the message on the client computer.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the user interface used in the data uploading step accepting a hint for the encryption key, saving the hint on the server for the user, and displaying the hint in the user interface in the transaction-authorizing step so that the hint is clearly visible.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the business transaction is making a payment, accessing bank records, accessing credit reports, accessing medical records, accessing personal information, conducting computation, and accessing data in a database.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising a step of including or adding new data in the authorizing step, wherein the new data is used to replace, amend, or supplement the usable data so that the new data alters the business transaction done in the business transaction step.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the encryption key is gotten from the location designated by the user.

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising a step of designating the encryption key location on the client computer or search order for searching for the encryption key so that the encryption key can be found at a designated key location or by searching for the key by the search order on the client computer.

14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising a step of saving the encryption key on volatile memory on the server for repeated uses, wherein the key disappears when the server is shut down, or is deleted after the user's connection is terminated, or after all connections are lost.

15. A method for protecting sensitive data stored in a database on a system comprising at least one server and at least one client computer in a network or the Internet, the method comprising: creating a plurality of user accounts on the server for conducting at business transaction which is of a type selected from the group consisting of processing a payment, conducting a search, combining data pieces or breaking down data into multiple pieces, and extracting numeric or ASCII values from text; creating a secured database by each of a plurality of users in the steps of generating a user interface for uploading data with an encryption key, uploading user-provided data with an encryption key to the server, encrypting the data on the server by using the encryption key, and saving the uploaded and encrypted data on the server, or in the alternative steps of generating a user interface for uploading data, encrypt the data on the client computer, and uploading the encrypted data to the server, and storing the encrypted data on the server, wherein the data encrypted by using different encryption keys are stored in the same database or different databases on the servers; and authorizing business transaction by each of the plurality of users by the steps of generating a user interface for uploading an encryption key with information identifying a unique business transaction, rendering the user interface on a client computer for the user, sending the encryption key to the server, retrieving encrypted data from the server for the transaction, decrypting the encrypted data with the uploaded encryption key on the server to generate usable data, or by alternative steps of generating a user interface for downloading encrypted data to the client computer, decrypting the downloaded data using a user-provided encryption key on the client computer, uploading the decrypted data to the server as usable data, wherein, the server uses the usable data to conduct the business transaction, and wherein sensitive data in the plurality of user accounts are encrypted using user-provided different encryption keys, which are not permanently saved on the server.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising a step of selecting data items to be encrypted and stored in the database in a setup page or a step of changing data items to be encrypted.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the data used for business transaction is one selected form the group consisting of personal identity data, credit card information, banking account data, user's financial data, personal medical records, transaction history data, personal secrets, documents to be reviewed and processed, and information for solving problems.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising a step for processing and transforming data, saving the transformed data on the server for the user, and using usable transformed data and/or original data in conducting a business transaction.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the transformed data is a web page, a text file, delimited text string, a database table, a data extract from a file, transformed file and combination thereof, wherein the transformed data is used in conducting a business transaction.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the transformed data, original data, and/or newly uploaded data are used in conducting a business transaction.